I have always used coffee grounds(and old coffee) on my plumerias, along with epsom salts, fish emulsion, and an organic fertilizer formulated for flowering houseplants from Gardens Alive(I used to use bone meal). I won't use synthetic fertilizers. Not to preach, but they screw up the soil and are causing serious problems with waterways and the ocean(overgrowth of algae and other microscopic organisms, causing environmental problems). They are also like steroids for your plants(juiced!). I figure, its all good for everyone involved to use organics. I'm pretty gung-ho when it comes to organic gardening. I really think the difference is how much sun they get. I've never got so many blooms as when I found a really sunny site for them(hard in the city). I also found that one of mine bloomed really early, and has another inflorescence coming up as we speak, after I plunged the pot in the ground last year. Maybe it got extra nutrition from the bottom of the pot from the garden soil, plus all the late afternoon sun from that spot. The two that are blooming/going to bloom are my yellows. I have yet to get my Key West Red and Miami Rose to bloom. So I put both of them in the ground this year, and hopefully they will bloom next year. I hardly ever water them. They do great. When I lived in Hawaii, they grew like crazy whether they were in wet Hilo/Puna(thirty foot trees!) or dry Kona. But in Hilo, there was hardly any soil, just lava rocks, so like mentioned before, excellent drainage(I swear the only thing keeping the plants alive in Hilo was the rainLOL). Bihai, I laughed at your story of moving to drier climates and the discomfort caused by them. I know exactly what you mean. After staying in humid Hilo/Puna for three months, I found it hard to sleep in Honolulu, with the dry air going over my lips, into my mouth and throat! I wish I would have had lip balm. I was definitely drinking lots of water! Speaking of moving to dry climates, I'm moving to the L.A. area(Whittier) this November, and many of you answered what I was going to ask on this forum;can plumerias be grown in SoCal? I guess I will have to bring plenty of lip balm and moisturizer! (its funny, I find the opposite problem with people from the Southwest, they usually freak out with the humidity here in the Midwest and out East) Brian

Adrienne in Thousand Oaks: Regarding UC Verde Buffalo Grass, we installed it June 2021 so can attest to how it took watering twice a day to establish, then less frequently until we were watering twice a week with good results; I live in Thousand Oaks and were restricted to watering once a week for 15 minutes which was a good soak and it survived the limited watering last summer. When first planted as plugs we had a lot of weeds but it eventually filled in and is very thick. What we don't like is that is it dormant and brown in color from November to March; it has been slowly turning green in the last few weeks now that it is spring. It requires very little mowing, about once a month at most from spring to fall. The only way to buy it in Southern California is from FloraSource Ltd. They ship it as plugs in flats so it is labor intensive to have it installed; cost is twice that of sod.

That time of year tends to be extremely hot. You might want to hit the beaches. Perhaps do Santa Monica, Venice and Malibu. Getty Center and Getty Villa are my absolute favorite gardens in LA area. Previous favorites are Descanso, LA Arboreteum and Huntington Library. They are inland where the Getty gardens [and fabulous museums] are near the cooler coast. Both are free. You have to have a parking reservation for the Villa and parking is $15 for either museum. There are walking tours downtown now. DH and I had a great time walking to the central library and a landmark cafeteria, Clifton's, one day for lunch. It's on Broadway which is lined with old movie theater fronts. Pretty cool until you see that none are movie theaters any more. Look up Clifton's, it's definitely different. Might want to take in a movie at one of the restored movie theaters. Disney has one am sure there are others. If you like tourist stuff then Universal Studios is a lot of fun. We got a year pass a while back and ended up going every other month or so and had a blast every time. Warner Brothers also has a tour but it doesn't have rides and shows as far as I know. But watch the weather, it's inland and could be really miserable then. Paramount is hard to get to as traffic is horrific where it is located, don't know if they do tours, we went to a TV show filming which might be fun to take in.

Samo? Is that acceptable speech in Santa Monica? I'm kind of cringing. I also cringe at PV (Palos Verdes), and a little at Frisco, Sacto, San Berdoo, and Vegas. Cali. I really cringe at that. Assuming the grass is suited to the location, all grasses need the same amount of water per week mostly depending on temperature. This is why Marathon is not good in the desert; it's not suited to the location. In the desert Marathon needs water every other day or so in the heat of summer. But in Samo you often have trouble getting out of the 70s in the summer, so watering would be a rare event. We talk about deep and infrequent watering for lawns. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. If your soil cannot absorb an inch in one sitting, we have ways of fixing that. One inch can be measured with tuna or cat food cans placed around the yard. Time how long it takes to fill all the cans. That will be your permanent watering time from now on. Always water a full inch (more or less - use this as a start point). As for frequency, this is the key. With temps lower than 70 degrees F, deep water once per month to keep the soil microbes healthy. For temps between 70 and 80, deep water once every 3 weeks. Between 80 and 90 water once every 2 weeks. Between 90 and 100, water once per week. Yes, I realize that every single lawn sprinkler guy in SoCal and FL, for that matter, highly recommends watering every day. That is complete BS. Your parents probably did it. Your neighbors do it. It's wrong. Deep and infrequent wins every time. Tif 419 is the go-to bermuda hybrid all across the county. It used to be extremely expensive, but now days it is the cheap one due to supply and demand. It comes in rolls of sod. You flatten the soil surface, place it down, roll over it with a water filled roller (rented), and start watering. At first you won't do deep and infrequent. You'll do the hyper opposite by watering 3x per day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) very lightly (5 to 10 minutes). You only need to moisten the roots and the surface of the underlying soil. If it gets squishy, that's waaaaaay too much water. Bermuda should knit to the soil in 2 weeks. Then you can back off on the frequency and ease your way up on the duration. Bermuda is not a low maintenance lawn IF you want it to look really nice. If you want it to look that good, then it needs to be mowed 2-3x per week and fertilized heavily every 6 to 8 weeks. If you want that look and feel, I would investigate UC Verde. Call some local nurseries and ask if they sell it. If you find one that does, ask if you can see some installations. Come to think of it, you might visit the Getty Museum and see what grass they have. I'm guessing Marathon, but don't know. St Augustine is the lowest maintenance UNLESS it gets diseased from the humidity and dew.